Can Lowe's charm graduate handle the MD post?(Jeremy Bowles, Lowe Lintas)(Brief Article)(Interview)

Jeremy Bowles has had to be patient for the MD role at Lowe

Jeremy Bowles, the newly promoted managing director of Lowe Lintas, mentions in conversation that he test-ran the marathon in less than three hours. It's not hard to see where he gets the energy from. "Lowe Lintas is a very demanding place," he says of the agency that picked up Campaign's Agency of the Year award for 2000. "It demands high standards."

Bowles should know all about the demands of the agency. He has been credited with the riot insignificant task of turning around some difficult client relationships during his seven years there, not least during the successful bedding down of the merged Lowe Lintas after October 1999.

Thirty-nine-year-old Bowles started his career in 1983 on the Saatchi & Saatchi Conservative Party account. He moved to CDP in 1985, and then joined Young & Rubicam in 1992. Since joining Lowe Howard-Spink in 1994, Bowles has worked on Whitbread, Olympus and Reebok, and has proven on many occasions to have a talent in selling cutting-edge work to the client.

Indeed, Bowles is known for this ability. He clearly believes in putting his money where his mouth is, telling Iain Newell, Heineken's marketing manager, that if the new campaign failed in research, he'd resign.

So if he's got the golden touch with the clients, why did it take the agency four months to promote Bowles from his position as deputy managing director? Since the former managing director, Chris Thomas, replaced the New York-bound chief executive, Paul Hammersley, in March, all eyes have been on the vacant seat.

Bowles' steady seven-year ascent through the Lowe ranks would suggest a certain amount of grooming on the agency's part. However, the lack of immediacy in replacing Thomas has led to speculation that Bowles was not the management's immediate choice for the job. This view was compounded by insiders' denials of Campaign reports, at the time, which suggested Bowles would take up the role.